78. Madam President, allow me to begin by saying a few words
in this great forum about Mr, Emilio Arenales, President of
the twenty-third session of the General Assembly, who is
no longer with us, but who remains for my country a great
champion of the United Nations, and for Guatemala a
statesman whom his countrymen will long mourn.
79. Last year, during his brief meeting with the President
of the Republic of Chad here at United Nations Headquarters,
Mr. Arenales drew attention, courteously but
energetically, to the decisive part which Heads of State and
Government can play in making our Organization a truly
effective, decision-making body in most of the many
matters which fall within its competence under the San
Francisco Charter. What he then had in mind, as the
delegation of Chad understood it, was an appeal to Heads
of State in general and to those of the great Powers in
particular.
80. Madam President, in these times of continual confusion
and disorder, it is hard for me to express the
satisfaction and pride of the Government and people of
Chad at seeing you in the office of President of the
twenty-fourth session of the General Assembly of the
United Nations. The honour thus conferred on you by
virtually all members of this Assembly is a mark of the
sympathy and solidarity which the nations, large and small,
feel with all women, for they have paid with their sweat,
their blood, their life, and their youth for the triumph of
life on our planet. To symbolize the sacrifices of women in
every continent and of every race and nationality, we could
not have done better than to choose a woman from among
the bravest of women, a woman from Africa which has
experienced five centuries of humiliation, exploitation and
slavery; at this very moment, part of it is imprisoned in a
system of oppression and assassination which history will
never dare to describe in full.
81. The fact that in holding your present office you
represent all the women on earth is due in no small degree
to your personal merits: as a daughter of one of the first
black nations of the world, Liberia, you are among the
great pioneers of the Africa of today. I am speaking now of
all those nations of Africa which in less than 20 years have
joined the ranks of the free nations. We all know that you
are experienced, and the delegation of Chad has full
confidence in you. My country will do its utmost to assist
you in your heavy task.
82. For yours is indeed a heavy task, at a time when from
this rostrum so many diagnoses are made of the ills
afflicting mankind. From there, too, the possible remedies
are also examined, yet no one wants to take the first step,
so much does confidence seem definitely to have left the
community of men.
83. You may rest assured, Madam President, that Chad
will at all times be at your side, limited though our means
are, whenever anything has to be done to promote peace.
For without peace, how can the young nations grow up normally?
84. We are the more firmly convinced of this, because
peace is the only real way out. We therefore follow with
great Sympathy the efforts made day by day by U Thant,
the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to find a way
through complex situations that will allay some of our
immediate apprehensions and even suggest the beginnings
of a solution. For young people in my country, the
Secretary-General symbolizes courage and peace and
personifies the United Nations.
85. I referred just now to the complexity of the problems
which our Assembly and Organization will have to face. But
among these problems, there is one which is the Gordian
knot for us all: the armaments race, involving arms of every
kind, and ‘the perfecting of the means of delivery of
weapons of mass destruction. My delegation is quite
unabashed about repeating the same truth over and over
again, when there is an evident danger that failure to
acknowledge that truth may cause irreparable damage to
the universe.
86. And today, more than ever, the plain truth is that we
must put an end to the armaments race, and that it can be
done. Once the armaments race has been stopped, as a
prelude to further progress towards universal disarmament,
then the fact that man has set foot on the moon will indeed
be seen to be an unprecedented leap forward and will
acquire its full significance for our future development.
Even so, my delegation wishes to pay a well-deserved
tribute to all the teams of workers, skilled technicians and
political figures who have imparted a new dimension to our
conception of the world through the success of the United
States astronauts.
87. It was with a glimmer of hope that, in July 1968,
Chad signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons [resolution 2373 (XXII)]. In the introduction to
his annual report, the Secretary-General is more pessimistic
on that point than he was last year. He speaks of “fear”,
“insecurity” and “frustration”, and he states with clarity
what we already believe:
“The notion of ‘superiority’ in such a race is an illusion,
as that notion can only lead to an endless competition in
which each side steps up its nuclear capabilities in an
effort to match, or exceed, the other side until the race
ends in unmitigated disaster for all.” [A/7601/Add.1, para, 28.]
88. The more optimistic speak of the “balance of terror”.
They believe that the bombs perfected and accumulated
day by day, along with their means of delivery, will never
explode. In real life terror has never been balanced,
particularly as it is an essentially subjective thing which no
weapon can measure accurately. It would be better for
mankind to be made fully aware that, in the present state
of affairs, the odds are over nine to ten that those terrible
weapons will one day be used in a struggle for domination.
89. The young nations, in the present situation, cannot
accept the idea of a “balance of terror’. It would be more
accurate to speak of a world “neurosis” — something that
can still be halted. I have used this expression because there
is now a nuclear Power which is not a member of the
United Nations. It is, therefore, an unknown quantity in
the “balance of terror”.
90. There are certain facts with which our world has to
live: nuclear weapons, bacteriological weapons, chemical
weapons, and the means of delivering them. This is the
beginning of October 1969; is mankind to resign itself to
mass suicide?
91. What we wish above all is that negotiations on this
all-important subject should be resumed as early as possible.
The work of the technical committees proceeds too slowly.
The Assembly must set the negotiations in motion again.
That is why the items entitled “The strengthening of
international security” and “Question of general and
complete disarmament” have been rightly included in the
agenda of this session.
92. The reason why the delegation of Chad dwells on the
question of disarmament is to prevent us from being unable
to see the wood for the trees. The crisis areas of the world
are in fact nothing but testing grounds for new weapons or
for strategies which, we are assured by both sides, are
always defensive. It is against this background that Europe
must study its basic security problems, both medium-term
and long-term, for the peace of the world depends on it.
93. In the Middle East, a grave situation seems to be
taking shape which could lead to a final confrontation
between the forces I have just mentioned, if the well-endowed
nations do not find the basis for a peace that
would be equitable for all, especially as their interests are
involved in this interminable conflict. The Security Council
resolution [242 (1967)] of 22 November 1967 should by
now have borne fruit.
94. In Viet-Nam an important step forward has been
taken, leading to the current Paris negotiations. But death
still strikes blindly in Viet-Nam. The people of Viet-Nam,
whose sufferings have lasted for too long, must now be
allowed to choose their own form of government; this
would in no way diminish the power of either side.
95. In Africa, colonialism in its most unspeakable form
still reigns in the Portuguese territories. The delegation of
Chad urges the great Powers which are allies of Portugal and
support and sustain it to help the United Nations to bring
about a speedy application of the principle of decolonization
in those territories.
96. The African peoples now under colonial rule ask only
to exercise their right to self-determination. The African
lands of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea (Bissau) can
welcome future African citizens from Portugal or elsewhere,
but they cannot be overseas provinces of Portugal.
Once again we address an urgent appeal to Portugal’s allies
to persuade that country to listen to reason before it is too
late to start a dialogue in Africa.
97. The Rhodesia of Ian Smith is a disguised creation of
the United Kingdom which it will one day have cause to
regret, because human rights cannot be violated with
impunity, even if the people of Zimbabwe have not
attained the necessary degree of development. We believe
that short-term profits are the sole reason for this adventurism
on the part of the United Kingdom.
98. The problem of Namibia remains unchanged, and we
wonder what method the great Powers will propose to
enable the United Nations to resume its trusteeship over
that part of the African heritage and lead it to independence.
99. As for apartheid, that monstrosity begotten by a
so-called civilized society in South Africa, the position of
Chad is widely known. Furthermore, Chad subscribed some
months ago to the Manifesto on Southern Africa,
paragraph 7 of which reads:
“Our objectives in southern Africa stem from our
commitment to this principle of human equality. We are
not hostile to the administrations of these States because
they are manned and controlled by white people. We are
hostile to them because they are systems of minority
control which exist as a result of, and in the pursuance of,
doctrines of human inequality. What we are working for
is the right of self-determination for the people of those
territories. We are working for a rule in those countries
which is based on the will of all the people and an
acceptance of the equality of every citizen.”
100. In other words, Africa ardently desires independence
with strict respect for the right of peoples to self-determination,
so that they can participate in the work of peace.
Africa has no wish to become the scene of disturbance,
violence, hatred or war. But that is what we must expect if
there is no change in the situation in southern Africa.
101. In fact, despite the sincere desire of Africans to
create a new, progressive and just society, in which every
man will have the right to work, live and acquire an
education, the retrogade forces of neo-colonialism are busy
once again. Everything has been set in motion to frustrate
the attempts to unify Africa, of whatever nature.
102. Concerning the part that could be played by the
great Powers in our present-day societies, for good or for ill,
the President of the Republic of Chad made the following
statement on 7 October 1968 from this very rostrum:
“Several times in history, dominant nations incapable
of allowing their reason to control them have dragged all
mankind into insensate and dangerous adventures merely
to satisfy the whims of their pride or their passions. The
very genius with which they were endowed did not give
them light enough, for they regarded it as an instrument
with which the more easily to dominate others.” [1684th
meeting, para. 16.]
103. Thus, neo-colonialism and imperialism can be contained
if we wish it. As we have seen, everything depends
on the will of man. But instead of that, we are witnessing
the manifestation of the will of certain champions of
foreign interests to set Africa aflame, at a time when it has
only just emerged from the horrors of its grim past.
104. Even Chad, where, according to the classic manuals
of colonial days, there is nothing but “wind and sand”, has
not been spared. To quote once again what the President of
the Republic of Chad said from this rostrum last year,
speaking of Chad:
“In the eyes of a certain press, that country is rather
poorly understood; it has its detractors, who address it in
highly unfavourable terms.” [Ibid., para. 34.]
Despite the attempts to discredit us, despite the organized
campaign of lies, Chad will continue along the path of
progress and maintain its policies of peace and good neighbourliness.
105. In Nigeria the civil war continues to occasion great
suffering, as we all know. But the leaders of Chad are also
aware of the efforts made by the Federal Government to
Spare and assist the civilian population of the region of
Nigeria occupied by the secessionists. If this civil war had
really been an internal Nigerian affair, it would not have
lasted so long. But the involvement of foreign interests in
Nigeria prevented the ad hoc Committee of the Organization
of African Unity from working objectively and
effectively for peace.
106. In any case, all the African countries have inherited
frontiers artificially created by the former colonial Powers,
and none of them can afford to fall prey to vultures
through acts of secession taking place in Nigeria, as today in the
Congo, is inseparable for peace in Africa, and therefore
from world peace. Friends of Africa, help us to have peace.
Civil war must be stopped.
107. Every year the reports of the United Nations
emphasize the growing gap between the rich and the poor
nations. Everything has been attempted here to persuade
the wealthier countries to show more generosity. Even
though this situation contains the seeds of a possible
catastrophe for mankind, the developed countries have no
intention of making any substantial concessions in the
name of world solidarity. Nevertheless, Chad believes firmly
in international co-operation. The United Nations Development
Programme has just started in our country; some
surveys and projects are being carried out.
108. Although the introduction to the Secretary-General’s
annual report seems to be far from optimistic, the Republic
of Chad hopes that the Second United Nations Development
Decade will be more successful than the First and
welcomes the creation of a Centre for Economic and Social
Information as a necessary means of support for the Second
Decade [see A/760/Add.1, para. 85].
109. On many occasions in this Assembly the delegation
of the Republic of Chad has expressed its unflagging
devotion to the United Nations, despite the growing
practice of dealing with the world’s most urgent problems
outside the Organization. Once again, my country reaffirms
its deep faith and full confidence in the United Nations.